Volanti Rocket Air First Impressions
As much hype as these have received over the last few weeks, I wanted to offer my thoughts and first impression. First off, the shoe is beautiful in hand. Size US 9.5, I have wide and flat feet and historically have gone up .5 in just about every brand out there. 361 Joker GTs and EQLZ 247 are the only shoes, recently, I've gone TTS. Fit is TTS, width is great with a 1 to 1 feel. I have just about a cm space from my big toe to the end of the shoe. Regular or narrow footers may be able to go down .5 Lockdown is above average. For as soft an upper as this shoe has, it's pretty supportive. Being such a minimalist shoe, usually the support and lockdown suffer. That is not the case here. My foot stayed planted in the footbed with no heel slippage. Full length carbon fiber plate that's bottom loaded definitely gives some energy return on that first step. The base is wide and the outrigger lateral side is pronounced. They also use that cat tongue material in the heel cup to lock your sock in. Cushion setup is the star here. The super critical foam is sooooo good. Bouncy and super plush. Maybe a little too plush for shifty players who are super explosive but amazing for most if not all other player types. The nitro air pod in the forefoot can be felt immediately when putting on the shoe. Also super bouncy and impact protection for a shoe this low to the ground with this much court feel is almost a unicorn. Court feel is comparable to Sabrina 3 or Kobe 5. Now for the disappointing part. Traction setup. It's elite on a clean well maintained court. Inline with GCU and RPU. They don't say it's a polyurethane based compound but I feel like it's leaning that way. When I took them to my public rec center home court, that's when things went down hill a bit. They pick up a ton of dust, unlike GCU and RPU. If you have the luxury of playing on clean polished courts, you'll not have any issues. My home court on the other hand, the micro texture held onto the dust and some dirt (pickleballers with no respect for the court or having court specific shoes). Wipes were okay but happened often after about 15 minutes. I really wanted them to perform better after playing on a clean court but they didn't. I didn't slip out or anything dangerous but the difference on a real life public gym floor was noticeable. I feel the same way about the Kai 3s. Keep them clean and they're great. Get lazy with wipes and it's not good. Perhaps the GCU and RPU shoes have spoiled me beyond objective opinion. When you never have to wipe and switch to a shoe that really requires it, it is annoying. What world am I living in? Overall for $150, I like the shoe a lot. Better than the Harden 10, Luka 5, GT Cut 4, Jordan 40, LeBron 23, KD 19.... The list could go on. Is it the Gamma killer some have talked about? Hard No. But is it 90% of the Gamma for 1/2 the price? Yes. I want to see how durability is moving forward but can't be any worse than some Kobes at this price point. GCU and RPU shoes will remain my go to shoes on my home court. When I play on better courts, I won't hesitate to throw this shoe in my bag. It's a great first effort in the basketball space for Volanti. As good or better than 90% of the big brands current offerings. Which says a lot about them and the current state of new hoop shoes in general.